Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Mr. Holder

For the first time in 40 years, the federal prison population has dropped -- 4,800 fewer inmates than last year. And BOP predicts a drop of 2,000 next year and 10,000 the year following. Right now, the population stands at about 215,000.Eric Holder, the Attorney General, has made it a priority to reduce overly-long sentences and unjustifiably high incarceration. He attributes this decrease to,

. . . . efforts to reduce long mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders. It also comes four years after the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act, which shrunk the disparity in sentences for crack and powder cocaine . . . .

from the Wall Street Journal.

This coincides with a drop in the overall crime rate. The correlation, or disconnect, between the drop in crime rate and decease in prison population is an interesting one, and can add to the ever-growing arsenal against the general deterrence theory.